Fauve Review: Atmospheric

Fauve is an enjoyable foreign short film that will remind you of your childhood, especially if you’re not from the United States. The excellent cinematography, emotion provoking scenes and surprising performances of the young actors will have a powerful effect on viewers. There is no doubt why this is an award-winning film.

We all did naughty things when we were children. Looking back, it’s easy to regard it all as amusing, but they could have had serious consequences. Fauve is a short film that will give you a different view on how children outside of the United States live. While they possess the same sense of wonder, it can have a much scarier impact. The grim reality is that many are surrounded by poverty and the absence of the parents during working hours. As a result, children are out in the world with no supervision. Those circumstances put them in danger that children in the US are not likely to experience.

Fauve means wild animal in English. The well-chosen title is explained in the plot of the movie. The family-friendly film will jogs one’s memory about that children’s story where a lying child keeps crying ‘wolf’ in a village to scare everyone for his amusement until one day the wolf turns out to be real. This movie might give a dose of reality to the young ones and not so young.

With the children’s story as a backdrop, director Jeremy Comte, plays with our minds throughout the film. A lot is left to our imagination, especially at the end. No two persons interpret the same thing, the same way. Thus, the film might have a different reaction depending on who is watching it. That fact makes it intriguing. It shows that the film values the spectator intelligence.

The young actors Alexandre Perreault and Félix Grenier play two mischievous young friends, well. They made it feel believable. The movie is realistic to its core. There were no elements that made it feel like fiction. The film shows the value of friendship in difficult times and to what extent these children understand that, and act accordingly.

The cinematography conveys the feelings of amusement, suspense and sadness lived by the characters. The director could have done more to get to the heart of its audience, without taking things over the top; move them to tears with the anguish-filled scenes. The film had no special effects; it was simple. It did not look like a Hollywood movie, but at the same time, the cinematography was decent. The shots of the landscape created a visual effect that helped the viewers to understand what is happening in the movie. There were close shots of the character’s faces in certain occasions showing feelings of sadness; what a harsh life they have had.

The score helped evoke those feelings. At the start of a few scenes, the music began subtly and kept getting louder. Even though there must be a point where the music should stop increasing to cause the right impression. It is like when one is singing. An amateur would scream with the high pitch, but professional singers know how to elevate their voice to the right level to arise the desired feelings.

A lot of the film’s success has to do with its pacing as well. Even though the movie was short, it was not rushed, either. Every scene took its time to develop and shows us what was going on during that period. It gave one the time to feel the amusement and desperation experienced by the characters. There was enough time to digest it, but it was not exceptionally long either.

Ultimately, this reality-based short film will captivate you. The cinematography, the music, the young actorsand most importantly, the story will transport you to another country without traveling. The mixed of all these elements creates a rather tasty exotic fruit punch cocktail.